CT investigations in children. Technique and indications

Technical advantages of spiral technology are of great usefulness in diagno stic imaging of thorax and abdomen in children. The rapid imaging time allo ws the examination of an entire organ while scanning with breath holding or while the child is quietly breathing, resulting in a decreased need for se dation. In addition especially examinations of the chest an to some extend CT-investigations of the abdomen are performed with reduced radiation dose achieved by reducing the tube loading. Radiation dose reduction of 70% is p ossible without loss of relevant diagnostic information. Spiral low-dose CT in pediatric chest imaging is useful in evaluating parenchymal lung diseas es, mediastinal masses and central airway malformations. Whether abdominal helical CT can be replaced by MRI has to be decided in each individual case . When an exact protocol is used, sufficient contrast material given, scan- delay optimized and postprocessing reconstructions are performed, usefull a dditional diagnostic informations are obtained by the method.